Abstract
The paper discusses the main aspects involved in numerical modeling of successive, large deformation, rigid body impacts in sand. The modeling was performed for the study of dynamic compaction of dry sand induced by repeated drops of a rigid tamper. Two dynamic finite element codes were used with a variety of soil models and computational algorithms. Large deformation effects and associated plastic behavior of the sand required special computational techniques of remeshing and reassignment of material properties. Consistency and stability of the formulations were evaluated based on their characteristics of convergency, accuracy, and computational efficiency. The adequacy of these models to represent actual soil behavior was evaluated by comparing computed results with available experimental data from an extensive laboratory investigation. The conclusions presented may serve as general guidelines relevant for this type of analysis.
